What’s Bad For GM Workers Is Bad For the
USA
As I started to do my promised article on developments in the UAW it soon became
clear to me that this was a much bigger deal than the run of the mill give-backs
that have become all too common in the American labor movement. The GM surrender
is in fact a disaster of historic impact, a turning point that will reshape
labor struggles in America for a long time to come, in my opinion. As my article
grew in length–too big to include in our regular weekly e-mailing to the
list–I’m afraid I also departed from my usual style of diplomatic politeness
toward our leaders. I’m interested in your comments. You can check out the
article on the web:

Mixed Decision In B.C.
It’s been a roller-coaster week in the "illegal" teacher strike in British
Columbia. It started out with a massive (I’ve seen estimates ranging from
7-50,000, in any case pretty big) solidarity demonstration at the provincial
capital in Victoria, called by the BC Federation of Labor. That was followed by
demonstrations, and solidarity job actions, throughout the BC mainland. A
steelworkers local adopted a resolution calling for a general strike.

But when a new
mediator got involved both the provincial fed and the teacher union called for
delays in further job actions as long as "progress" was being made. Nor did the
teachers put up much of a protest when a judge leveled a half-million dollar
fine–the biggest ever handed down in a Canadian labor dispute.

Both the
teachers and the Liberal government have tentatively agreed to accept the
mediator’s recommendations. Schools are slated to reopen Monday. The deal
includes another twenty million dollars to "improve learning conditions" and
unspecified changes to the School Act to limit class sizes. Initially the
teachers held out for more definite, written guarantees from the government but
ultimately accepted more vague promises.

The deal is
subject to membership approval–which, under the circumstances, appears likely.
For now, its impact on coming public sector negotiations with other unions
remains to be seen.

I saw
absolutely no reference to this turbulent struggle in any of the mainstream
media in the U.S.

Crafty Strategy At Northwest
On the first day of the
AMFA strike at Northwest, the leader of
the pilots union summoned other crafts to an emergency meeting. It was
definitely not a gathering to organize solidarity with the strikers, however. In
fact, AMFA was excluded from this conclave convened to come up with a joint
proposal from the scabbing crafts for a new offer of give-backs to the carrier.

Their plan was
undermined by the reluctance of the second largest union at Northwest, the
Professional Flight Attendants Association (PFAA), to go along. The ranks, at
least, of the flight attendants have shown sympathy with the AMFA strikers and
have worked reluctantly because of legal obstacles to honoring the picket line.
In the end, Northwest management decided the coalition of the willing couldn’t
come up with sufficient give-backs and opted instead for bankruptcy.